1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus for positioning and advancing packaged baked goods such as loaves of bread, buns, rolls and the like which must be grouped in accurate patterns for loading into delivery containers for transportation to retail outlets.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is common for baked goods such as loaves of bread, buns and the like to be packaged by placing them into individual plastic bags with the open end of each plastic bag being gathered and having a gripping closure placed there around inwardly of the open end. The terminal portion of the bag outwardly of the closure expands to form a fantail end portion which is generally referred to in the bread packaging art as a xe2x80x9ctail.xe2x80x9d
The packaged bread loaves or other baked goods are generally placed in trays or containers for transportation to retail outlets. The packages are typically arranged in a particular pattern for loading in the container, depending upon the size and shape of the container and the size and shape of the individual packages, so as to place the maximum number of packages in each container without damage to the packages and without having any portion of a package, including the tail, project,beyond the container. The tail extremity of the packages are preferably directed toward the interior of the container.
For this purpose, pattern forming devices are known in the art for arranging individual articles into predetermined patterns and then handling the pattern as a unit for loading into an associated container or the like. Pattern formers designed for handling packaged baked goods are disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,739,902 and 3,779,363. However, these devices require one or more transfers between moving belts during the pattern forming operation. Such transfers necessarily increase the amount of handling that each package must undergo, thereby increasing the chance of damage to the packaged products.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,292 discloses a patterning apparatus which employs a horizontally disposed window belt to orient and advance packages of bakery goods. As the belt undergoes continuous movement, packages supplied from a feeder belt drop through a window on the belt onto an underlying rotatable platform. Entrance and exit gates and a vertically movable positioning frame undergo reciprocating movement each time packages drop through the window. The complex sequence of events attendant package orientation causes the apparatus to have a slow throughput and frequent incidence of malfunction. Although throughput can be increased by causing groups of packages to be supplied by said feeder belt, such grouping diminishes the patterning options of the apparatus.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a continuous patterning apparatus for arranging packaged bakery goods for shipment.
It is another object of this invention to provide patterning apparatus as in the foregoing object which has a faster throughput than prior patterning apparatus.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a patterning apparatus of the aforesaid nature capable of handling sequentially supplied single packages.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide a patterning apparatus of the aforesaid nature of simple and durable construction amenable to low cost manufacture.
These objects and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description.
The above and other beneficial objects and advantages are accomplished in accordance with the present invention by a patterning apparatus for arranging packaged bakery goods for placement into shipping containers, said apparatus comprising:
a) a product orienter comprised of:
1) conveyor means having a horizontally disposed surface for transporting packages of bakery goods in a longitudinal direction from an entrance site to a discharge site,
2) a series of turner assemblies associated with said conveyor means for rotating said packages in a horizontal plane while being transported, and
3) means for causing displacement of said turner assemblies laterally with respect to said longitudinal direction during said transport, and
b) a staging deck which receives oriented packages from said product orienter and assembles them into a predetermined pattern.
The turner assemblies include platform means capable of retaining by gravity effect a packaged bakery product resting thereupon. Said platform means is comprised of an upper layer of a resilient material and a lower layer comprised of an engineering grade polymer such as a nylon polyamide in a sufficiently thin sheet configuration to impart flexibility to said lower layer. Said resilient material is preferably a closed cell sponge rubber as defined in ASTM-D-1056-99, grade 2C2, and having a coefficient of friction interactive with said packaged bakery goods of between 1.0 and 1.2.